Resources
It's a Small World After All — Part 2
by Ellen Marshall

Many of our colleagues have worked in international assignments and have had amazing experiences. We polled our membership to locate JBEs working internationally to tell us how they employ their JBE skills in other cultures, how that work has changed their perspective, and how they access NASJE resources while engaged in their consultancies. This is the second of two articles (for the first article see Fall 2007 NasjeNews Quarterly [http://nasje.org/news/newsletter0704/]) describing how JBEs transfer to another legal culture expertise learned through their professional development and experience in the U.S.

When NASJE polls its membership about which benefits count most toward their professional development, the two top responses are (1) networking with like professionals experiencing similar challenges and opportunities and (2) the ability to tap into resources like JERITT publications.  This article focuses upon how Judicial Branch Educators (JBE) employ these same resources when consulting in another legal culture.

The author questioned NASE members working internationally.  Responses from Maggie Cimino (California), Pat Murrell (University of Memphis), Mary Fran Edwards (Amid east, and formerly NJC), Debra Koehler (Maryland), Joe Silsby (Missouri), Ingo Keilitz (Consultant, formerly NCSC), Diane Cowdrey (California and formerly Utah and the JEEP project) and Ernie Borunda (California judge, DPK consultant) form the basis of this work. This author found that most of the respondents consulted with colleagues before and after their international work for specific assistance and that many used JERITT monographs and NASJE’s Principles and Standards of Judicial Branch Education extensively.

NASJE as an organization and its individual members have played key roles in advising other nations committed to advancing the professionalism of its judicial branch staff. Often these consultancies are with justice department officials and supported through grants from USAID, the World Bank and the United Nations.  The governments of Japan, Australia, France, Canada, Switzerland and Germany are also large donors to these international efforts.

Networking among NASJE Members

Judicial branch educators accept both short and long term consultancies to work as court experts in developing countries.  Since the break up of the Soviet Union, many countries have sought international aid and support to help rebuild their justice systems.  Other eastern countries and several African nations, suffering from the results of civil strife, also sought the help of other countries to bring their court systems up to international standards.  Many of our colleagues accepted these assignments and relied upon their NASJE resources in that challenging work.

Ernie Borunda worked in Macedonia for DPK Consulting to establish the National Center for Continuous Education.  Ernie brought in several NASJE members – Pat Murrell, Maggie Cimino, Martha Kilbourn (California), Tom Langhorne (formerly Virginia’s JBE), William Brunson (NJC) and Diane Cowdrey – to facilitate faculty development workshops.

Mary Fran Edwards took her NASJE learning to Mongolia and Egypt.  In both countries she facilitated and taught train-the-trainer workshops, assisted with developing learning objectives and other curriculum development and staff development activities.  All of her work was centered upon enhancing internal capacity, the aspirational goal of most USAID-funded projects.

“I guess the key difference is that almost everything involves a training element, even if it is only on the job training, to ensure that enhancements will be sustained. “ Mary Fran goes on to explain that one of her projects in Egypt was to improve the judicial center library in which she hired an expert from the American University of Cairo to train staff librarians on coding.

Ingo Keilitz referred to his work in Kosova as follows:

…I certainly was guided and inspired by theories and processes documented in them (NASJE News articles on performance standards), as well as by NASJE friends working there about the same time. Knowing something about adult learning was particularly helpful….

NASJE publications Principles and Standards of Judicial Education (1981) and Principles and Standards of Judicial Branch Education (2001) are recognized widely in the U.S. and have subsequently been adopted by other international JBE organizations.  Through the training efforts of early judicial educators Tony Fisser (Connecticut), Dennis Catlin (Michigan), Larry Stone (Ohio) and Paul Li (California), the initial publication made its way to judicial systems in China, Greece, Macedonia, the Ukraine, Khazitstan and other Russian states, Serbia, and Japan.  The latest version of the standards have been discussed in Kosova, Macedonia, Egypt, Jordan, and at conferences of the International Organization of Judicial Trainers through the consulting work of current NASJE members.

Adult Education Literature and Practices

Without a doubt, all NASJE members have benefited professionally from the workshops focused on our profession at annual conferences.  We went beyond the adult education theories of Malcolm Knowles and the practices modeled in Gordon Zimmerman’s faculty development workshops to create our own set of judicial education practices.

Early NASJE projects like JEEP and later JERITT worked successfully to bring judicial branch educators together to share best practices. Between NASJE’s founding in 1975 through the 1990s, these early publications became the professional literature of our organization. They also became the foundation of future research and publications, notably the JERITT monographs and the materials from the 1999 National Symposium on Judicial Education in St. Louis.

Like other professions establishing a professional identity, judicial branch educators began to publish articles, monographs and practice guides.  Although many of these were initially generated for a state specific audience, they became part of the JBE literature through NASJE News and annual conference materials.

NASJE members use these publications extensively in their international work.  The 1981 Principles and Standards has been translated into several languages.

Judicial branch education practice made a quantum leap when Professors Charles Claxton and Patricia Murrell started the Leadership Institute in Judicial Education, funded by the State Justice Institute.  These founding faculty members adapted the David S. Kolb theory of adult education to a court environment and disseminated its practice through one week workshops. Many state judicial educators brought teams of their state’s educators to the Leadership Institute and then adopted the Kolb theory for faculty development.

NASJE members since then have used the Kolb theory and the Kolb Learning Style Inventory when they provide adult education consultant services in other countries.  Through an earlier query at the 2005 NASJE conference, and research for this article, the author discovered that NASJE members have used the Kolb theory in judicial education workshops in Egypt, the Philippines, Macedonia, Mongolia, Cambodia, Jordan, Morocco, Kosova, Australia, Siberia and Algiers.

As our colleagues work in other legal cultures, they have been inspired by the determination that judges and court professionals bring to the work of court reform.  Most admit that they learn from their international colleagues more than they teach about the value of the rule of law. This awareness inspires JBEs in their work in the States.

Experience has taught NASJE members that, although many of the basic practices of judicial branch education are transferable even to civil law countries, other cultural variations must be respected when making education system recommendations.  For example in the Kingdom of Cambodia, Japanese and Australian legal experts have had a profound influence upon the rewriting of Cambodia’s Constitution and their statutory laws.  This support is much more compatible with their historical legal culture and how their courts operate than the U.S. system. Recommendations such as training in the ABA Canons of Ethics for a country like Cambodia would not be appropriate.

NASJE Continues Its Support for International Justice Enhancement

NASJE established an International Task Group in 1997 to support judicial educators in other countries and to circulate information to its members about international consultant opportunities.  It also seeks to expand international membership in NASJE and to plan workshops on international topics at its annual conference. This committee has included a chapter on International Judicial Branch Education Standards in the most recent revision of Principles and Standards of Judicial Branch Education. It continues to support the work of the International Organization of Judicial Trainers and to encourage NASJE members to attend its conferences. Task group co-chairs, Claudia Fernandez (CA) and Judith Anderson (WA) welcome your interest and participation in its work.

From its earliest days NASJE has been involved in opportunities to participate in the building and strengthening of judicial branch education throughout the globe. Technology can advance this agenda through such projects as international web-based conferences on global issues facing courts and the sponsorship of threaded discussion groups and member blogs.  International JBE networking in this brave new world is just a click away.

Ellen Marshall has worked as director of both the Maryland and District of Columbia Court Education and Training Divisions.  She was inspired to do international work for the Hope Fellowship Program in Kosova from 2003-2005 and to start her own adult education company, Eureka. Contact Ellen with questions or ideas for future international articles in this series at Eurekacompany@aol.com.

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